The simple and startling claim of this book is that the four natural elements of air, earth, fire and water combine in pairs to create distinct and definable subsets that occur everywhere in nature and also, as Jung recognised, within us all, manifesting as personality types or archetypes.

Everywhere in human life these twelve elemental combinations appear as tropes and these are laid out and described in detail accompanied by exquisite illustrations by Herewood Gabriel.

Going much further than in his previous books, The Magic Circle of the Soul and The Future Will Be Green, the author details here for the first time the negative aspects of these elemental combinations and reveals twelve new, 'mirror' archetypes.

"Tammo de Jongh is undoubtedly the missing link between Jung and Gurdjieff. His concise and poetic style is paradigmatic and forward looking. Little wonder King Crimson took him as the cue for their album, In the Wake of Poseidon." - Dr. Andrew Keeling